More than 100 public affairs professionals gathered today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC for the first annual PR News Public Affairs Conference.
The guests heard top public affairs and PR executives lend expertise in important disciplines such as social media, issues management, crisis response, media relations and grassroots PR.
The conference's opening keynote speaker, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, set the tone of the event by stressing the importance of bringing facts to arguments involving the public. "Truth has little to do with facts, and is more about beliefs," said Shapiro.
Shapiro went on to say that in the U.S., there are extremes on both the left and right, while the middle is hugely skeptical due to this lack of factual discussion in Washington. "What we need is open and honest debate, and we need to cater to this vast middle," concluded Shapiro.
Kicking off the conference sessions, panelists from Ogilvy, MasterCard, Zoetica and Johnson & Johnson spoke on their efforts to deploy social media to manage reputation and public issues.
MasterCard's Jim Issokson had some sage advice for those starting up social media programs: "Make sure that your corporation, and your legal team, is on board."
J&J's Marc Monseau detailed how the health care giant started small with social media outreach, and became more ambitious after considerable experimentation. "By building up to more complexity, it gave us more of a comfort level," said Monseau.
Mirroring findings of a pre-conference survey of public affairs professionals, social media remained front and center in the next session. In "Leveraging Cause-Related Marketing in a Recession," Rajesh Anandan of Unicef, Jaya K. Bohlman of Sodexo and Mary Boyle of Common Cause detailed successful cause campaigns that had major social media components.
At the lunch break, Eleanor Clift, contributing editor at Newsweek and panelist on "The McLaughlin Group" gave an insider's look at politics inside and outside the Beltway. Clift said of the Supreme Court's recent decision to allow corporate contributions to campaigns: "The Court is disconnected from the real world."
Clift also said the Gulf oil spill is now just beginning to play out politically as the midterm elections draw nearer.
One afternoon panel featured mainstream and social media press, who gave tips on how public affairs pros can get better coverage for issues. Both Roger Hughlett, executive producer at the Washington Business Journal, and Kim Hart, columnist at Politico and formerly at The Hill, said the hot media topics in Washington today are the midterm elections and privacy and cyber-security. Some media pet peeves: Don't follow up multiple times and try to reach a journalist through multiple platforms. "No means no," said Hart.
The final panel featured a spirited discussion on crisis communications. Eric Dezenhall of Dezenhall Resources, stressed the importance of having leadership willing to face a crisis out front. "The character of leadership trumps strategy," said Dezenhall, who added that the Internet and social media platforms, in his eyes, were big negatives for crisis management.
Eliot Hoff, senior VP at APCO, also warned about the "anonymous world of social media," and that transparency was the key in leveraging the platform.
Look for more in-depth coverage of public affairs issues—from measurement to social media to crisis management—in upcoming issues of PR News.